Ultima Game Developer: Symbolism
Games are about story. They are about having fun, doing something noble, heroic, tragic, or whatever allows you to get the escape you desire. However, Ultima games are also rooted in a deep philosophy....
The Digital Lycaeum Blog
Ultima Game Developer: Milestones
One of the first things a novice game developer asks is, “When should I release my game?” A serious game developer knows that there is only one real answer, “When it is done.” Done,...
Ultima Game Developer: NPC Schedules
Beginning with Ultima V, all characters in the game followed schedules. As the complexity of the games increased, the complexity of the schedules do likewise. During Ultima VII and Serpent Isle, a blacksmith characters...
The Ultima Game Developer Series
Creating a game is a big task, and can be overwhelming for a single developer or small team. In this ongoing series of posts, I’d like to introduce different concepts, and explore how they...
Ultima Game Developer: Morality
The Ultima series assumes that you are a good character; after all, you are the one to complete the Quest of the Avatar and become the epitome of virtue. Some games in the series...
Ultima Game Developer: Crafting
Crafting in role-playing games tends to go one of three ways. Too often it is all performed “off-screen” by NPCs, which then sell the results to the player. Some, like in the Ultima series,...
Ultima Game Developer: Magic
Ultima is a game of sword and sorcery. Unlike other role-playing games, however, Ultima has established a living magic system. New spells can easily be added, as long as their context can be converted...
Ultima Game Developer: Skills
In many RPGs, skills play a much larger part than they do traditionally in Ultima games. For the most part, Ultima is concerned only with levels (for spellcasting and hit point accumulation) and partially...
Ultima Game Developer: Full Day-and-Night Cycles
The night sky has important meaning within the Ultima series. Not only does the world feature two moons, Trammel and Felucca, but these moons are linked to the moongates. Moongate travel is a vital...
Ultima Game Developer: A Seamless, Dual-Scale, or Leveled World?
The early days of Ultima features a dual-scale map: when you explored a town or castle, or when you got into combat, the game “zoomed in” to a closer view of your surroundings. While...
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